Its about Peak Play, and i saw absolutely dominate a very young Serena at her first attempt the strong Sanchez at RG, before falling into some traps by the tricky Arantxa. No one did that except maybe Seles, but mostly she had some Problems with Sanchez at RG. Also some other performances by Williams on clay i rate very high.

Sanchez was way below her prime level by 1998. Patty Schnyder, Anna Kournikova, and Magui Serna all drubbed her to bits on clay that year. Her win at RG that year was the biggest fluke of her career bar none, and some kind of karma for all her tough losses in majors in 95 and 96. If she was in a different part of the draw and played Seles, Venus, or Hingis in the next round (quarters) following the Serena comeback win, Sanchez would have been gone in 50 minutes at that years RG.

Someone like Martina Hingis (who never won RG) had an incredibly easy time with post prime Sanchez at RG, losing only 8 games in 4 sets in their matches there from 97-99.

Like I said Justine Henin in 2002-early 2003 was 3-1 vs Serena on clay. This was all time PEAK Serena and non prime Henin who had not even won a slam or reached a RG final yet. Based on that we already know beyond any doubt peak Henin >>>>>>>>>> peak Serena on clay, and I am not sure if Henin would even make my list of the top 5 peak clay courters ever (I would rank Henin top 5 all time on clay, but not necessarily peak level play on clay).